Names
In the English language, ethnic Germans that originated in the Kingdom of Bohemia were traditionally referred to as ″German Bohemians″. This appellation utilizes the broad definition of Bohemia, which includes all of the three Bohemian crown lands: Bohemia proper, Moravia and Czech Silesia. In the German language, it is more common to distinguish between the three lands, hence the prominent terms Deutschböhmen (German Bohemians), Deutschmährer (German Moravians) and Deutschschlesier (German Silesians). Even in German, however, the broader use of ″Bohemian″ is also found.
The term ″Sudeten Germans″ (Sudetendeutsche) came about during rising ethnic nationalism in the early 20th century, after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the First World War. It coincided with the rise of another new term, ″the Sudetenland″, which referred only to the parts of the former Kingdom of Bohemia that were inhabited predominately by ethnic Germans. These names were derived from the Sudeten Mountains, which form the northern border of the Czech lands. As these terms were heavily used by the Nazi German regime to push forward the creation of a Greater Germanic Reich, many contemporary Germans avoid them in favor of the traditional names.
Read more about this topic: Sudeten Germans
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